[The Man]

Originally Posted by JoeP

That iſ what ſhe hath ſaid.

My inner pedant feeleth compelled to butt in here. For what it is worth, it ſeemeth the ſtandard practiſe was not to use the long s at the ends of words. It also was not common practiſe to use two long ſ's in a row, ſo you would get Meſsage inſtead of Meſſage. This resulted in the creation of the ß ligature, which is ſtill in common uſage in German but hath been abandoned in Engliſh. (It can also be a ligature for ſz, which is why German ſpeakers refer to the character as an Eſzet. However, even in German it uſually appeareth to be uſed to replace ſs.)

A few other ligatures were common in Early Modern Engliſh typeſetting, ſuch as ſt, ſi, and ſl. There actually is a Unicode character for ſt (ſt), which I ſimply did not uſe in my poſt above becauſe many people's phones probably do not have it inſtalled, and it alſo is not even included in Verdana, the font uſed on this meſsage board, ſo it ſtandeth out from the reſt of the text on the meſsage board and maketh the ſpacing ugly, as well as looking ſlightly ſtupid as a reſult.

Pratchett and Gaiman were not actually completely conſiſtent with Early Modern Engliſh uſage in their placement of the ſ character, but in this caſe I think ſome of this may have been part of the joke, as the character reſponſible for the ſo-called "compoſitor's error" maketh ſeveral other ſpelling and grammar miſtakes, even bearing in mind the lax ſpelling ſtandards of Early Modern Engliſh (again, as alluded to above, Samuel Johnſon was reſponſible for much of Modern Engliſh orthography as the creator of the firſt major Engliſh dictionary, and then Noah Webſter truly codified it). On the other hand, Agnes Nutter, whoſe uſage is leſs queſtionable by Early Modern Engliſh ſtandards, also useth the ſ character at the ends of words.

In any caſe, the appropriate reſponſe ſhould actually be "That is what ſhe hath ſaid."

show spoiler

Alſo, if the Buggre Alle This Bible paſsage had uſed ſ in keeping with ſtandard Early Modern Engliſh uſage, the paſsage would be:

2. And bye the border of Dan, fromme the eaſt ſide to the weſt ſide, a portion for Aſher.
3. And bye the border of Aſher, fromme the eaſt ſide even untoe the weſt ſide, a portion for Naphtali.
4. And bye the border of Naphtali, from the eaſt ſide untoe the weſt ſide, a portion for Manaßeh.
5. Buggre Alle this for a Larke. I amme ſick to mye Hart of typeſettinge. Master Biltonn is no Gentelmann, and Maſter Scagges noe more than a tighte fiſted Southwarke Knobbeſticke. I telle you, onne a daye laike this Ennywone with half an oz. of Senſe ſhould bee oute in the Sunneſhain, ane nott Stucke here alle the liuelong daie inn this mowldey olde By-Our-Lady Workeſhoppe. @ *"Æ@;!*
6 And bye the border of Ephraim, from the eaſt ſide even untoe the weſt ſide, a portion for Reuben.

For whatever that is worth (probably leſs than a farthing).